Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Do Great Work

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 464 posts

Re: How to Do Great Work

#171

Post by zeroonetwothree »

bryanmgreen wrote: post #148

I think it's important to note there are two types of "great work" 1) Where you have work expertise that is objectively higher than your peers or in the top percentile of your industry due to natural skills or experience or both. 2) Where you have do not have top-percentile expertise, but are hitting the limits of your capabilities. Maxing out your performance is the only way to know your limits and get better. Somet…

The third type is where you just got lucky. For example a one hit wonder musician or writer. Your baseline abilities aren’t that good but you hit the high side of variance.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#172

Post by Blahah »

MichaelRo wrote: post #137

Well put. But what the article (and others like it) lacks is the fallback, the plan B, the exception handling, what to do if things don't work out as planned. There's a Gauss curve. Simple stuff can be done by any idiot so there's going to be a lot of competition on that. Like picking strawberries, for any position there's 100 Mexicans (in the US) or Eastern European guys (in the EU) willing to do that for cheap. So…

Honestly I didn't think it was well put at all. A vast number of words for very little content, and what content can be distilled is useful to approximately nobody. I've never known a person who needed this advice.

If you're exceptional in some niche you don't need the advice (if it can be called that). If you aren't, you can be your best and thrive if you are motivated, in which case this is similarly unhelpful. In the final case, if you aren't intrinsically motivated to do 'great work' then you won't.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#173

Post by skribanto »

brigadier132 wrote: post #95
scarface_74 wrote: post #8

> Develop a habit of working on your own projects. Don't let "work" mean something other people tell you to do. I spend eight hours+ a day supporting my addiction to food and shelter. Why would I spend my free time working toward “greatness” instead of doing hobbies I enjoy and spending time with friends and family? Any other time I have I’m spending working out and training for runs - neither of which I will ever be…

What's your complaint? That this article is not targeted at you? The article is titled "how to do great work". If you aren't interested in doing great work then you are not the target audience.

Does HN really think this? 99% of people will have neutral to negative impact on the world 10 yrs post mortem. None of us are the target audience is this article

Re: How to Do Great Work

#174

Post by moneywoes »

MichaelRo wrote: post #137

Well put. But what the article (and others like it) lacks is the fallback, the plan B, the exception handling, what to do if things don't work out as planned. There's a Gauss curve. Simple stuff can be done by any idiot so there's going to be a lot of competition on that. Like picking strawberries, for any position there's 100 Mexicans (in the US) or Eastern European guys (in the EU) willing to do that for cheap. So…

> So exception handling: if you invest a lot of effort into something make sure you get to reap some rewards even if you're one of the 99 guys that doesn't get to pick the strawberries.

How does this work in the world of business where 99% fail

Should I not even try?

Re: How to Do Great Work

#175

Post by chinchilla2020 »

MichaelRo wrote: post #137

Well put. But what the article (and others like it) lacks is the fallback, the plan B, the exception handling, what to do if things don't work out as planned. There's a Gauss curve. Simple stuff can be done by any idiot so there's going to be a lot of competition on that. Like picking strawberries, for any position there's 100 Mexicans (in the US) or Eastern European guys (in the EU) willing to do that for cheap. So…

Exactly.

My cousin tried to become a twitch streamer. He is an incredible gamer and did some competitive gaming in shooter tournaments back in the day. He's also very funny and charismatic.

He became interested in hacking minecraft pushed some of the boundaries of what you could do in the modding/hacking scene.

Despite his efforts, things never really took off and ended up heading off to college like the rest of us.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#176

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

interroboink wrote: post #125
urs wrote: post #13

Just stumbled upon this thread and wanted to share Richard Hamming's classic talk from '86, "You and Your Research." Then I realized that the funny part is that PG has already linked to Hamming's talk on his site ( http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html ), and mentioned it on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/paulg/status/849300780997890048 ). There’s a part in that talk that has always stuck with me: he advises to ask y…

There's an unspoken aspect of the word "important" here — important to you , or important to the world (society, etc)? From Hamming: "I thought hard about where was my field going, where were the opportunities, and what were the important things to do. Let me go there so there is a chance I can do important things." It seems he is talking about the important to the world aspect. He wants to have a big impact on the w…

Right now, the audio tech/software niche is abuzz with ideas and attempts related to using transformer technology within the field. Music generation, new synthesis techniques, generative DSP and more.

According to the field, viewed from some altitude, these the "important (to the world)" things.

But for myself, with 25+ years in the field, I couldn't give a rat's arse about any of it. Absolutely not "important (to me)".

Am I ambitious (still) ? I think so. But I'm also picky about where I'm willing to put my energy.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#177

Post by chinchilla2020 »

Octokiddie wrote: post #135

> What are you excessively curious about — curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That's what you're looking for. This is a great article, but there are many, many people for whom this advice is going to lead nowhere or worse. They have often been to fancy universities and have often earned fancy degrees. But what they don't realize is that they've also been trained to respond to the praise of authori…

At the end of the day, your curiosity and talent is used to make money for someone.

Fetishizing work productivity and ability ignores the fact that most company owners are managerial types that will harness your output for monetary value. You could easily end up wasting your life by becoming some niche field leader in the systems you work on, but never enjoying the rewards of your talent.

Hackernews in particular likes the idea of a life spent entirely behind a laptop, but there is a larger world out there, and the winners are enjoying it while we chase little lifehacks to eke out 20 extra minutes of productivity in a 10 hour day.

I'm as guilty of this productivity fetishization as anyone here, but am just reaching a point in life where I'm starting to notice the walls of the maze.

Re: How to Do Great Work

#178

Post by moneywoes »

cushychicken wrote: post #11

Another thing you need: patience. I'm 34, and just in the last year reached the point where I have: - enough experience and context to do great work, and - the right people to leverage that context and experience on meaningful applications It took a lot of waiting for that ideal blend of circumstances to come around. I wish I'd have been able to tell my 26 year old self that as he slogged through an entry level EE jo…

> the right people to leverage that context and experience on meaningful applications

Whss as t does this entail, business context?

Re: How to Do Great Work

#180

Post by moneywoes »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #176
interroboink wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an unspoken aspect of the word "important" here — important to you , or important to the world (society, etc)? From Hamming: "I thought hard about where was my field going, where were the opportunities, and what were the important things to do. Let me go there so there is a chance I can do important things." It seems he is talking about the important to the world aspect. He wants to have a big impact on the w…

Right now, the audio tech/software niche is abuzz with ideas and attempts related to using transformer technology within the field. Music generation, new synthesis techniques, generative DSP and more. According to the field, viewed from some altitude, these the "important (to the world)" things. But for myself, with 25+ years in the field, I couldn't give a rat's arse about any of it. Absolutely not "important (to me…

Curious, do you just think the industry is over hyped
Post reply on HN